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[elfs]

For the past month, I have been waking in the middle of the night in significant amounts of back pain which immediatelay disappeared whenever I got up and pissed. I have also started to notice that the vague discomfort that comes from having a full bladder had travelled up and now resided in the small of my back, as if my kidneys were now doing a lot of the work that once belonged to my bladder. Two nights ago it was so excrutiating that the pain did not go away afterwards, but lingered, keeping me awake long enough for my allegies to kick in with brutal efficiency. I did not sleep well.

I saw my doctor on short notice. I have been ordered to cut back on caffeine. A lot. Like, from two or three cups of coffee in the morning, a pop with lunch, and maybe an iced coffee on the way home-- to one cup, period.

Eeek. And bleah!

Comments

[jenkitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. The doc suspects kidney stones?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Nope. That's more or less been ruled out. This is more of an ongoing muscle strain. She's not sure what, so she's referred me to a urologist.

[tonyawinter.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I had to give coffee up completely a while back... It just blows! Yeah, so I guess I'm saying 'I feel your pain.'

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Yow. I gave up caffeine years ago when I was doing Weight Watchers, and that was before I started drinking coffee. The thought of doing it now is just plain scary.

Try not to kill anyone. :-)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I gave up caffeine a couple of years ago in the attempt to get actual sleep. Maybe switch to tea? Supposedly the caffeine isn't processed the same way, and you'd still have the hot beverage thing going.

Also, you probably want to do the giving up on a weekend, to give you a little more time to adjust.

[kenshardik]

Perhaps yerba mate would be a reasonable substitute?

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

I've weaned from coffee several times by mixing the regular and decaf beans in shifting proportions. Eventually it's all decaf, with a fairly minimal caffeine content. Then you can decide whether to drop the actual drinking habit or not separately from the physical component.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you taking any sleep aids?

At the risk of adding to the TMI, I noticed a similar problem when I started taking medication to help me sleep. The problem was that it was knocking me out so well that I wasn't waking up till my back was in horrible spasms. I would end up like you did the other night, wide awake and playing on the computer while waiting for the pain to go away.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

I assume they checked for infection, right?

Did your doc recommend increasing your non-caffeinated fluid intake? Quite often being dehydrated (which caffeine can definitely contribute to) can cause kidney aches, and staying hydrated can help with general UT health overall. I think the usual recommendation is to drink an ounce of water for every 2 pounds that you weigh, every day. In addition to stuff like juice and gatorade, that is.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yes, and the calciated by-products of stones, and neither showed up in the lab tests. That's why she's referred me to a urologist. And I've just killed my eight glass of water today...